In many types of motor vehicles, and in particular utility vehicles such as sports vans, sports wagons and station wagons, it is known to provide a cargo area which is located in the passenger compartment of the vehicle immediately behind the rear seat. A rear hatch or rear cargo door is typically used to provide access to the cargo area. In certain vehicles, the seat back of the rear seat may be folded forward, or the rear seat completely removed from within the vehicle, to increase the size of the cargo area.
A significant problem which arises when storing cargo within the cargo area is that such cargo is totally visible to anyone who looks through the vehicle windows, and particularly the window included in the rear hatch back door. As will be recognized, the fact that the cargo is visible adds to or creates the temptation for persons to break into the vehicle and steal such cargo, particularly if it is apparent that the cargo is relatively costly or valuable.
In recognition of the risks associated with allowing the cargo stored within the cargo area to be openly viewed, it has become a common practice for those vehicles which include a cargo area to be provided with a flexible screen or rigid plastic cover which is suspended above the cargo area floor and used to conceal from sight the contents of the cargo area. Though these flexible screens or rigid covers prevent persons on the outside of the vehicle from viewing the contents of the cargo area through the vehicle windows, such screens and covers possess certain deficiencies which detract from their overall utility and marketability.
In particular, the rigidity of those covers which are fabricated from plastic or similar materials makes the removal thereof from within the cargo area and subsequent re-installation into the cargo area both a difficult and time consuming procedure. Additionally, once such covers are removed from within the cargo area, the size and rigidity thereof necessitates the need for a large storage space to accommodate the same, thus making storage within the vehicle itself virtually impossible. The flexible screens known in the prior art are typically provided in the form of a flexible sheet of material (such as cloth or vinyl) which is retractably mounted to a reel. The reel is typically mounted on the back of the rear seat, with the flexible sheet being selectively extendable over the cargo area and into releasable attachment to a portion of the vehicle body behind the rear seat. However, when fully extended and suspended over the cargo area, the flexible sheet is susceptible to sagging and fluttering, thus giving the same an unsightly appearance. The present invention overcomes these and other deficiencies associated with the prior art by providing a foldable cargo cover which is maintained in a substantially planar, non-sagging configuration when fully unfolded and suspended over the cargo area, and is foldable into a compact configuration when removed from within the cargo area, thus allowing for its subsequent compact storage in the vehicle as well as a compact configuration for retail marketing purposes.